Mickey’s latest is his most magical game in years… too bad it’s shorter than Tinkerbell.

Reviewed on Nintendo 3DS

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November 20, 2012

Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion represents the long overdue continuation of the Illusion series, which began with the forgotten SEGA Genesis classic Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. It’s a magical game that’s fun to play and gorgeous to look at - unfortunately it’s also shockingly short and smacks of missed opportunity.

Power of Illusion puts you in the oversized shoes of the world’s most famous mouse, tasking you with rescuing Minnie and other notable Disney characters from the clutches of an evil witch named Mizrabel who has trapped them in her illusory castle. You’ll jump on enemies, execute a spin attack and use the bottom screen to either draw or erase things from the world around you in your attempt to rescue Mickey’s beloved. For an action platformer Power of Illusion is rather slow - from the way Mickey moves to the pace at which the game unfolds - but once you adjust you’ll find it sets a satisfying pace that encourages exploration and allows you to really appreciate the lush environments.

While it’s slower than some gamers may be expecting, Power of Illusion controls beautifully, and jumping around while destroying enemies with your magical paintbrush is extremely enjoyable. The level design is also quite creative and even challenging if you’re not careful. Things like the altered jumping physics in the Little Mermaid water levels and the platforming puzzles that force you to take a risk to nab some cash make the game exceptionally fun and addictive.

Unfortunately, the same praise can’t be given to the painting mechanic. While the concept of influencing the top screen with your actions on the bottom by way of painting and thinning sounds incredible in theory, in practice it’s rather repetitive. Characters aside (some of whom must be rescued by finding and painting them to life), there are only a handful of objects to paint or erase in the entire game, and it gets a bit repetitive drawing the same item into and out of existence over and over again. Since this was supposed to be the game’s main hook, there should have been a lot more variety. There’s just so much more that could have been done with this mechanic, and so many missed opportunities (like the magic carpet you can draw to life, but then can only speed up a bit rather than actually control). This is a huge shame for something that was meant to be one of the game’s main draws.

Get used to drawing that cannon. You&#Array;ll be doing it a lot.

One area Power of Illusion certainly doesn’t skimp is its visual presentation - this game looks absolutely gorgeous. The lush, painted backgrounds and hand drawn spritework are an absolute feast for the eyes, drawing inspiration from the Disney animated film each world it based on. The lovely 2D art of each level and character really bring that patented Disney magic, and help make this game’s world both beautiful and memorable. Interacting with the characters you’ve rescued and sent off to hideout in the Fortress is a great touch for Disney fans, but it’s a shame there aren’t more than a dozen or so characters to find and that there isn’t too much to do with them outside of upgrading the room they’re staying in. Even so, having the ability buy paintbrush and attack upgrades from Uncle Scrooge’s shop or help Beast reunite with Lumiere in such a gorgeous setting is still really cool.

Power of Illusion’s biggest drawback comes from its shockingly short length. The entire game features only three worlds, each comprised of three or four rather short levels, with only three boss fights in the whole thing. A skilled gamer can easily beat the entire game in one sitting if they really want to. This is a sorry amount of content, especially considering this is being offered up as a full retail game (and that there are tons of download games that are far longer). Sure, you can somewhat extend your adventure by taking on quests from the characters you rescue, but most of these involve simply talking to someone a few rooms over or returning to a level you’ve already beaten to find something hidden that wasn’t there before. Most of these quests come off as nothing more than busywork, and are a poor substitute for a substantially-sized adventure.

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion Wiki

The Verdict

Disney Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion is breathtaking to behold and controls beautifully, with well-designed levels and fun platforming. It’s really too bad the experience is hampered by its unacceptably short length, as well as by the fact that the painting mechanic gets repetitive. While I was shocked and disappointed by how little content there was, the content that is there had me completely enchanted. Flaws aside, Power of Illusion is still a delightful game - one that has me dying for a sequel that fully realizes the power of paint and offers about ten times the amount of content. If you love retro-inspired platformers (or are a card-carrying Mouseketeer), this game is absolutely worth playing - just be aware that the adventure will be over far too soon.